The Times from Munster, Indiana • 19

THE TIMES Friday. November, 1987 B-7 BREAKAWAY: THEATER 'Grown Up9 seems too rea Ji. parents, that even wl parents, that even Sondheim musical offers challenge when she gets to 7 ir 4 other cast members who get through musically intact and add charm to the evening. Musically, others did not make out as well and the strains fell into disharmony and at time pure cacophony. Young Kari Shapiro's singing is not yet on a par with her acting.

Michael Zafran's operatics are frequently on the flat side and Kali Basala's lyrics are obscured by the acoustics. it By RICHARD SHERMAN Times Correspondent "Grown Up" by Jules FeiKer. Directed by Kyle Donnelly Scenic Design by Jeff Bauer. Presented by the National Jewish Theater, at the in the Bernard Hor-wichMayer Koplan Jewish Community Center. 5050 W.

Church Street in Skokie through November 22. Performances are Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:30 p. m.v Saturdays at 8:15 p.m. and Sundays' at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Tickets are to $17.

Call 312-675-5070. CAST Helen Joan Spataf ora Jack Jerry Jarrett Marilyn Eileen Vorbach Jake w. Gerry Becker Louise Peggy Roeder Edie Jennifer Golden "Grown Ups" is filled with the all those cathartic absurdities that make up Jules Feiffer's near-surreal satirical world. Actually, everything seems too painfully real as we view what we would like not to think is a typical family. But, it is a typical family, though perhaps not yet a complete stereotype of the New Jewish experience and it seenv? the paranoia may not even be just a passing phase.

This family crises may be perennial. Joan Spatafora plays a domineering over-protective mother. Her son is a prince, her husband is to be manipulated, her daughter is to be invisible as she herself wishes not to be, and her daughter-in-law is, of course, not good enough for Jerry Jarrett as Jack, Eileen Worbach as Marilyn and Gerry Becker as Jake are featured in Jules Feiffer's "Grown ups" her son. Spatafora can break into a song and dance, tell a story, charm everyone, and then have a manipulated seizure. She's marvelous on stage, but I'm exceptionally happy the character she's playing isn't my mother.

Gerry Becker plays the son. Becker slices on the cutting edge in everything he does. All the empathy is blanched from the character leaving it less admirable. That is the character, for Becker's piercing performance is just fine. ORDER TICKETS UOl7 219-933-0313 nmi AN ACTIVITY OF ORAK TEMPLE AND NOT FOR THE BENEFIT OF SHRINERS HOSPITALS FOR CRIPPLED CHILDREN STARTS TUES.f NOV.

24 HAMMOND CIVIC CENTER OFFICE OPEN 9.4 DAILY CALL 219-933-0313 Timing slips in 'Noises off production tell a story she can remember it And, in Vorbach's exit scene, the family doesn't even notice her despite loud and childlike pronouncements. She at least seems to be getting her new self together, one way by totally divorcing from her family. Playing neglect isn't easy. In Act II we get to meet the wife. Peggy Roeder has been driven completely nuts and her paranoia is that her husband will leave her.

She's not far from the mark. Roeder shows a wide range of wifely agonies and is alternately victimized by her mother-in-law, daughter, husband, and even the ineffectual father, Jerry Jarrett. Ten year old Jennifer Golden's plays the eight year old granddaughter, and has evidently been directed to be obvious in her cameo. The fine abstractions are here. Feiffer makes you want to scream, "This isn't my family.

It isn't anybody's family." But, you know it is. It's the real family you don't find in the television sitcom. It's the family any ethnic group has. It's so hard to watch the foibles of your own nuclear family unit. Another fine bit of acting, but not as much dark humor as promised.

Dare you watch someone else's intense families as this. Oh well, some families live in houses, others live intense! madcap act. Tina Zagone plays the assistant stage manager who is unknowing part of a love triangle with the director and the ingenue. She tries to be composed and be the backstage glue, but she very much a part of the contagious mayhem. Lastly, there are David McCann as the unsteady and tippling veteran actor and Bernard Jablonski as the stagehand to round out the cast.

The show is funny, the characterizations are reasonably good, but it appears that director Carol MacKenzie concentrated more on avoiding a dragging is the lesser of two evils. The slapstick comedy scenes work fine, but the overall cohesiveness was just not quite in evidence. It could well be a case of the closing night rushes. Good effort here, but I really believe that if they could do it for more than one weekend they would get spot-on with their timing and get those ten laughs a minute about which "Noises Off" offers. evening Enchanted Evening," and "This Nearly Was Mine." Both powerful songs done masterfully well and Payonk is equally adept with his love and dramatic scenes.

CRAFTY IDEAS CRAFT SUPPLIES HAND MADE ITEMS 1918 INDIANAPOLIS BLVD. WHITING, IN 659-7490 HOURS: SAT. 10-5 FRIDAY 10-8 CLOSED SUN. 'Noises Off has one of the funniest second acts in theater, mainly because it provides a backstage look at the play everyone has just seen performed. By RICHARD SHERMAN Time Correspondent The Hammond Main Square are challenged by the dif-icult chromatics of Stephen Son-dheim's "A Little Night Music." The challenge is met only by some of the principals in this ultra sophisticated Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler musical.

It's a Swedish comedy of manners based on an Ingmar Bergman film, but comes across as much as an Ibsenesque Viennese walzty melodrama. The shows lofty style with a flimsy premise is at best deliberate and slow moving. With the scene changes, Main Square's production moves even more slowly. Actress and former lover Desiree (Janie Wilson) has returned to perform in the town where Frederik (Larry Hinkin) lives with his new virgin wife of 11 months, the 18 year old Anne (Kari Shapiro). Frederik's repressed son Henrik (David Long) is studying for the seminary.

He's tolerated by his father and teased by his younger stepmother who secretly loves him. A classical stereotype of the military male chauvinist Count Malcolm (Michael Zafran), who is determined to continue to possess her as his mistress. He barely tolerates his own wife (Sondra Hinkin). Sondheim's music is deceptively difficult while seeming simple. His usual rambling narrative songs are filled with harmonics which are subtly out of range for the beginner.

This score is full of dissonance and tricky half steps. Perennial Main Square principals Larry Hinkin with "Now," and "It Would Have Been Wonderful" and Janie Wilson with "Send In the Clowns" master their parts and both give complete and well managed perfomances. Noreen Novak, Katie Fleming, Sondra Hinkin, and Jean Pitman are 437 Ridge Road Munster 836-5481 5529 Hohman Hammond 932-1728 5625 Columbia Hammond 932-8393 1825 Calumet Whiting 659-0728 Schererville 2120WickerRt.4!) 865-3949 GAKflELD: 197 United halure S)ndicatc, Inc. All 5 As the son, Becker can tell stories, have just a tinge of sympathy for his sister, no real understanding or consideration for his wife. He is a prisoner of both his mother and his own daughter.

His ultimate outbursts are as predictable as they are self-centered. Eileen Vorbach has a rough time of it and does extremely well playing the restrained sister who does everything for her parents, but is not appreciated nor even permitted ever to finishing a story. She is so rattled, and insecure by her inner motivation and relaxation to the part of an actor who seems to have neither. Rick Rapp is the main lead in the, the, well it really doesn't matter which play I'm thinking of. Rapp raps a little too quickly in the opening segment, but then settles down for some comically expressive moments.

Reggie Award winning director Rick Zagone plays a flamboyant director. This time out as an actor, he is a trifle shakey and uncertain. Lynn Werth as the stable actress is sturdy enough in the part, but needs to take more command in the final Rogers and Hammerstein were Broadway pace-setters. Were they alive and writing now, they would trim this production to match the '80s sitting ability of their audience. There is no suggestion here for director Mike Shildmyer to engage in multiple surgical amputation, nor complete butchery, but some exercising in Act I would surely be welcome.

The scenes that really make the reason for such a production are carried out nicely with the sonorous, strong, and gifted voice of John Payonk. The French accent is acceptable and he acts remarkably well both during his songs, "Some General Cinema CINDERELLA 10-S Arnold CROSS MY RUNNING MAN (R) I 45-3 45-5 45-7 4t- 45 DATE WITH tN ANGEl (PS) Barbara BARGAIN ALL SHOWINGS mki By RICHARD SHERMAN Times Correspondent "Noises Off" by Michael Frayn is a classic spoof about a spoof and the Drama Group in Chicago Heights just doesn't get the spot-on timing the play needs. In an effort to avoid a dragging pace and make that on-the-mark timing, The Drama group rush their opening act, thus squelching the funny laughs that should have been forthcoming every six seconds. The opening is a rehearsal for a play called "Nothing On" a British touring group is trying to put on. J'Noises Off" has one of the funniest second acts in theater, mainly because it provides a backstage look at the play everyone has just seen performed.

Only now, everyone sees the little intrigues. Act III turns the set around, but by now the acting troupe is in such a frantic state that the whole tour play is in such a marvelous shambles. While some of the intricate DRAPERY CLEANING SALE E- per panel 'South Pacific' is enchanted MATINEES-EVERYDAY! fC BEFORE 6RM.9 A.f language jokes are sped by in the first act, the play noises onward and the sight gags pick up the humor. Delphine Stace as the character plays it with more distraction than I've seen in other performances, but she moves in first gear as the play progresses. Patti Ilio as the somnambulant ingenue maintains her steady level of high caliber acting.

This time she wears an extra long red curly wig (and sometimes little else) and keeps up her non-stop hilarity. A much improved performer is Charles Barnett as the insecure second leading man. Barnett brings an Bridge Vu dinner Playhouse's "South Pacific" provides a long, but enchanted evening. Expeditious cuts in some of the less important reprises and more swiftness in the scene changes would update a very long, nearly two hour opening act. But, the length (comparable to some of the bizarre three hour Goodman Theatre presentations), doesn't mar the charm of Julia Volkman as Ensign Nellie Forbush, nor the elegance of John Payonk as the French plantation owner Emile de Becque.

The tropical set is based in WW II and the nurses and Sea are helping to mount counter assault on the Japanese. All the women have been sent, to the mysterious Island of Bali Ha'i to keep them safe from the American Navymen. A fiercely independent plantation owner and man with a past, de Becque reluctantly agrees to accompany Lt. Cable to an island outpost to spy on the enemy. Hilarious Comedy I Dudley Moore LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON Frl.

Sat. Sun. 8:00 Closed Thanksgiving Day No one under 12 admitted PRINCE IN SION 0 THE TIMES dolby (PO-13) SSTh 1 no-i no- mi.e-gn.io ro-F rn i A to itLi THE RUNNING MAN dolby (R SSTtl a5 EATAl BEAUTY ID) SiTtl EATAl ATTRACTION dolbv IR1 jVThj-H-4 FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC IPG-13) SSTh 1 1 5 3. 1 5 S. I S-7 1 5 9: 1 5-FM 7.

1 9. 1 5 NUTS(R) 13 30-2 45-5 00-7 2S9 50fM W7.2M.M LESS THAN ZERO dolby (R) THE HIDDEN jR) nlTf WITH AN ANOEl dolby IPG! STh '-K-l'M 7.30-135 HELLO AGAIN (PG) S'Th 30-5 tNFAK PBIVIfW SAT. 7:30 THREE MEN AND A tABY (PG) riunt om rfolbv (Gl SSTh 1:00 3.3O-4.0Q-5 7 30-f W7.0O 10 SUSPECT dolby (R) SSDl 1:1 7: IW45 Straliand 745-W00 PRINCE In 45-7 70 UGH Of THE TIMES (PO-13) 2 00 3 70 HIAUT (R) 9 00 No 7:40 Show Sat. nlte HELLO AGAIN (PG) 1.40-3 40-5 40-' 40 9 40 FATAL ATTRACTION (I) 2154 457 15-9 45 (PG) 9:15 DIRTY DANCING (PO-13) 3 7 30 9 33 CINDERELLA i 1 00-2 4W 2M0t 7:40 SUSPECT (R) Lined or unlined Lengths Carefully cleaned pressed Decorator folds FREE CLEANERS Convenient Locations INDIANAPOLIS DOWNTOWN HOW. Washington Sl In the center of downtown's excitement (317)236-1800 NUTS(R) 1 TEEN WOLF TOO 1:15 3:15 5:15 7:15 IPG) OS 9 70 FATAL BEAUTY (R) DEATH WISH I (R) TEIN WOLF TOO (PG) BABY BOOM 215-4 40-7 LESS THAN "H0WEB IN THE ZERO (R) ATTK (PGtlf By RICHARD SHERMAN Times Correspondent "South Pocific" musical drama by Richard Rogers and Oscar Hamerstein II based on James A.

Michener's "Tales of the South Pacific." Produced by Tim Albert. Directed and choreographed by Mike Shildmyer. Set Design and lighting by Mike Shildmyer and Robert Heighway. Presented at the Bridge Vu Dinner Playhouse, 552 U.S. 30 West in Valparaiso through November 28.

Performances Fridays and Saturdays, Dinner 6 p.m. Show 8 p.m. Selected Sunday matinees. Luncheon at 1:30 and show at 3 Dinner-Theater (Senior and children Show only $9, Seniors and Children $6. Call 462-3107.

CAST Nellie Julio Volkman Emile r. John J. Payonk III Bloody Mary LuAnn Pezel Lt. Coble Robert Heighway Luther Andy White Stewpot Ralph Fritz Ngana Maggie Bonjean Jerome Adam Bonjean Plus 19 other Navy nurses, Seabees, Native girls, and Officers. 6735 Kennedy Hessville 844-9769 Tht Hocking Chair Theatr All Seats 2.50 wan uisney CINDERELLA Wk.

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